


Glass Does Not Tarnish

by LectorEl



Series: Glass Heart [1]
Category: Batman (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magical Realism, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-01
Updated: 2012-02-01
Packaged: 2017-11-23 05:44:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/618744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LectorEl/pseuds/LectorEl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The doctors built Tim a heart of copper, silk, and glass.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Glass Does Not Tarnish

**Author's Note:**

> Magical realism thing. Please don’t ask me what’s going on, I don’t know either. As always, the only constant is Tim’s tragedy.

Tim was three when his heart died. It happens, sometimes, and nobody is entirely sure why. It has something to do with suffering, but precisely what triggers it is unknown. A girl is snubbed on the playground, and the next week she’s rushed to the hospital to treat the sore that’s festered on her chest. A man looses everything and hangs himself in the backyard of what had once been his house, but autopsy reveals his heart was alive up to the last minute.

If you catch it early, it can be fixed. Family and friends can donate a little of their hearts to you to replace the dead one. If you don’t have those, there’s the national registry of donors, complete with extensive profiles to help you build a heart suitable for your needs.

Tim though, Tim’s the youngest person to ever have their heart die and live to tell about it. And there aren’t many toddlers on the donor list. His parents hearts were quickly declared incompatible with him, and they didn’t have any other near relatives to donate.

So the doctors built Tim a heart of copper, silk, and glass. A red seed of fire sits in a filigree cage at the center, covered by veils of tinted glass, seeming to shift and mingle depending on which direction it was observed from. Over that, they tied braided cords of grey silk and copper wire around the fragile heart, and sealed the knots shut with a layer of resins.

It’s been nearly a century since an artificial heart was installed in America. Tim’s surgery is only half-planned, the other half rapid-fire innovation when something went wrong.

Three steady clinical cuts, and then the doctors peal back the flesh of his left side to reveal the ribcage, and the battered, limp knot of tissue that once was the toddler’s heart. The surgeons work quickly. One removes the sections of his ribs right under his arm, setting aside the bone on a sterile tray. The other scraps out the tough, sinewy remains, severing the few connections still clinging to the dead organ.

The artificial heart settles easily into the barren cavern of Tim’s chest. Before they put the cut bone back in, one end is capped in copper to prevent the rib cage from fusing back together. The opening will be necessary if Tim ever needs a new heart again. The odds aren’t in his favor, after all. Once your heart dies, the replacement is always just a little more fragile than the original. A quarter of the people who’ve lost a heart will lose another within their lifetime.

Tim’s parents take him home after the surgery before the anesthesia even wears off. They leave him in his room, and go off to their own pursuits.

So the first time Tim opens his eyes after the surgery, there’s nobody around to see the azure blue of his eyes fade to pale, stormy grey. There’s nobody around to watch him rub at his chest, right above where his new heart resides. There’s nobody around to notice when he cries, soundlessly, and rocks himself to sleep.

There’s nobody around to hear the sound of glass breaking as the first fracture opens in his new heart.


End file.
